Trinamul Congress dismisses EC’s clarification on duplication of voter card numbers
The poll panel must 'accept' the mistake within 24 hours and carry an in-depth probe into it
New Delhi:The Trinamul Congress on Monday dismissed the Election Commission’s clarification on the duplication of voter card numbers, saying the poll panel must “accept” the mistake within 24 hours and carry an in-depth probe into this. Terming it an “epic scam”, the TMC has threatened that if the EC fails to do it, the party would go all out to expose the anomalies with more documents on the issue from Tuesday.
The party has claimed that the EC’s statement that duplicate numbers do not necessarily imply fake voters backed its claims about the inclusion of non-resident voters in West Bengal’s electoral list to help a “particular party”. To prevent this TMC leaders and party members have started visiting their respective areas to scan and physically verify voter lists.
The TMC’s allegations come after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that 39 lakh new voters were added in Maharashtra in five months before the Assembly elections. Similar allegations were also made by AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections.
“The ECI is admitting the error but has still not accepted the mistake. This is not a threat (to expose the ECI) but to give the respected ECI time to admit the mistake,” TMC Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien said. On Monday, Mr O’Brien, along with TMC Rajya Sabha deputy leader Sagarika Ghose and Lok Sabha MP Kirti Azad held a press conference during which they displayed lists with details of voter identity cards with the same EPIC number, saying that most of these voters were from the states ruled by the BJP.
The ECI had on Sunday clarified, saying duplication in EPIC numbers does not imply duplicate or fake voters, adding that some cases of duplicate EPIC numbers are caused by use of identical alphanumeric series by two different states and Union territories. The poll body asserted that while the elector photo identity card (EPIC) numbers of some of voters “may be identical”, the other details, including demographic details, Assembly constituency and polling booth, are different. The EC added it will take corrective steps to rectify the problem and will ensure allotment of a unique EPIC number to all registered electors, apart from updating its technology-driven platform.
Sources added that the identical EPIC number was due to an old system when everything was done manually and that soon a better system will be rolled out.
Mr O’Brien alleged that the poll panel sprang into action and was forced to issue the statement only after the TMC announced that it was going to hold a press conference on the issue. “Limited appreciation to the EC. I say limited because the EC is admitting the error but not accepting the error,” he said.
The party has claimed that the ECI’s statement that duplicate numbers do not necessarily imply fake voters backed its claims about the inclusion of non-resident voters in the state's electoral list to help a “particular party”.
“We want only residents of a state to vote in that state. Only voters of Bengal vote in Bengal... Voters will not be allowed to vote as their votes will be cast by people with identical EPIC numbers. These people will be sneaked in from other states to vote. This is unacceptable,” Mr O'Brien said.
Reacting to the controversy, BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said the TMC is “scared of losing power in the next Assembly polls as it won't be able to manipulate the public mandate through terror, intimidation, and false voting”
